Untitled, London Bellman
CONGLOMERATIONS
Conglomerations of demographers
Cynical cryptic actuarial lists denoting all
The troubles up in Ketchikan
And what if love happened somewhere
Ghosts being sighted in the Misty Fjords
Upside down stalactites like the World
Trade Center prior to 9-11
Wherein corporations formed conglomerates
Love of a kind that can’t be answered
Barges bringing groceries for hungry people
Spreading up and down the Inside Passage
Bankers in Juneau won’t lend money
To build a house in Sitka
Love alone won’t keep houses warm
However any house for Seattle
Where the mortgages would be safe
I am catching a plane for Seattle
The trees in the old growth forest
Somehow know they are residents
Of a rain forest with 200 inches of rain
Each year and two tides daily
Love rides two daily high tides
Feeding thirsty eagles at the shore
Demographers join with anthropologists
Researching original totem poles
How the hand-built cedar canoes came
Loving the last of the natives
Killer whales gathering for a convention
Their pods are true pods of originality
They were here before the white
New Englanders came around the horn
Brash whalers seeking fortunes
Willing to die for love on the open seas
Love certainly is a kind of disease
Part of a natural conglomeration
______________
John Garmon